Robert Frank in a fellowship application: “The project I have in mind…will shape itself as it proceeds and is essentially elastic.” — Geoff Dyer “The Ongoing Moment”
Since Photoshop is my primary tool for photography (after capture), I thought it would be worth the $120 per year to move to CC and wanted to lock in the $9.99 subscription price which expired on Dec. 31 for the basic photography package. I usually upgrade for each revision, although not immediately. Since the upgrades were typically $200, and I upgraded about every 3 years, I was spending about $65 a year cost averaged, so this doubled my costs, but $65 a year is not all that much for something I really enjoy.
I am actually very satisfied with PS CS6, but was thinking long term. Some of the new features like improved sharpening and Upright were also attractive. So I signed up in December, but didn’t do anything about it until January, when I tried to start downloading the new CC version.
Surprise! Photoshop CC runs only on Windows 7 and 8, I would need to upgrade my Vista operating system. (I have no idea what the situation is with iOS.) Cost just more than doubled with $139 for Windows 7. However, since my laptop was Windows 7, I wasn’t too upset, because, if there is a reason, having the same OS on both computers was probably a good idea.
While waiting for the software to arrive I googled “Vista to Windows 7” to see what I was facing. There is an “advisor,” that reviews your entire system, and points out possible problems. Happily, nothing significant. Also did a complete back up of C:/ and D:/ drives to an external drive. Let each one run overnight. I even remembered to reset automatic sleep, so it wouldn’t shut down midway.
When I got the Windows package it said that this version of Windows should only be used on new computers. Well obviously I was upgrading and the computer wasn’t new. I checked to see if there was a different version on Amazon. No, this was the only choice. If I opened it, I couldn’t return it. I dithered for a week or two and then opened it. There were two choices, one to click on an automatic upgrade, so it wasn’t going to be a problem, but the packaging was sure misleading. An entire afternoon was spent migrating to Windows 7, and then additional time updating various drivers.
Next step: I definitely wanted to be able to go back to my Photoshop CS6 if they raised the CC price significantly, so I needed to deactivate Photoshop before uninstalling if I wanted to be able to re-install later without a problem. No problem. But where do I deactivate Lightroom? Got on Adobe chat – Lightroom doesn’t need deactivation, just uninstall and reinstall.
Next, the Adobe download site, which was very clear and indicated which programs were available for install. I needed to download and install three programs: Photoshop, Bridge and Lightroom. Bridge was a separate program and didn’t download and install automatically with Photoshop. There were some other programs available as part of the subscription, but they were for things I didn’t do like mobile programs. The info button describing their function was actually very helpful.
Finally, opened Photoshop and made sure the preferences were set the way I like them. I did move to a darker background. I had stuck with the light gray when given an option in CS6. Photoshop and Bridge are working fine; I haven’t opened Lightroom yet because I am running out of room on my desktop and purchased an NAS (Network Attached Storage) device which would work like a mini-server. It comes with RAID software so it would simultaneously create a copy on a second drive, in other words, I bought 8 TB of drive space to get an effective 4 TB of storage and an immediate backup. When everything is transferred, I will establish a new Lightroom catalog from scratch. That is why I am waiting on LR. The NAS is connected to my router, so I can access it from desktop or laptop from anywhere in the house – I have my own cloud.
Next adventure, setting up, installing and migrating to the Synlogic DS214+.
PS (that’s postscript not photoshop): Adobe sends an email each month when they bill my credit card.